Izar to be split

The Spanish government has allegedly decided to divide the Izar state shipbuilding group into two. What the government is aiming to do with this move, which has come in for severe criticism from the government of the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) and the trade unions, is to set up a new group that will include all the military assets. The government argues that this decision will give the defence sector market an “appropriate” response and that the new group will provide a service for the ?Ministry of Defence?s naval programme? and for the current ?commitments under contract?.

As far as civil shipbuilding is concerned, the government believes that the only solution could be ?private financing?, but the SEPI, the State Industrial Participation Corporation, has already announced that this will not entail the ?privatisation of the plants?.

The BAC government fiercely criticised the Spanish cabinet decision and is in no doubt that, by excluding the Naval civil shipbuilders from this new group, the Sestao shipbuilding activity will be sacrificed. BAC believes that the decision taken by Madrid is “a purely political one”.

The unions have also criticised the decision claiming that the decision taken by the Spanish government had been without “any consensus whatsoever”.